Christmas, part 1

Christmas has officially come and gone already. Wow, where does the time go? As a kid, it always seemed to take forever for a birthday or special holiday to come, but not anymore. We had Christmas with my side of the family this past weekend and will celebrate with Derrick's side this week. So, this is part 1.


Before we left for Eden, I took some pictures of Abbie in her Christmas dress. Please excuse the backdrop - it was a last minute idea and the backdrop needed to be ironed, to say the least!




Grandma Hubbard made two sets of mittens for Abbie, which are a huge hit, with both mom and Abbie! Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa for the mittens!





Eli loves hats and had to help Abbie with hers... and try it on for size! :)



Abbie is really starting to take off with walking, which is exciting and scary. Last night, after we got home, I got to see her, for the first time, go from a sitting to a standing position without using anything to help her up. She got on her hands and knees, pushed her butt in the air and then just stood up. I was amazed. And glad that I got to see her do it. She hasn't done it again yet, though.


Elijah got to play cars with Uncle Derrick.


And ham it up for the camera. This kid loves to have his picture taken!


Mom and dad were there, as were Caitlin, Amy and Josh and Grandpa and Grandma Dempsey.


Eli got Abbie this adorable tutu for Christmas!

and then had to try it on himself... lol


And then we put it back on Abbie...


In all, it was a great part 1 to Christmas. There was, as usual, lots of food and goodies and I ate way too much. Even for a pregnant woman. haha

Update

Yes, it's been since July that I've last updated the blog. And all I've got are pictures of Abbie. :) Life has been busy and I'm amazed at how much of my day is spent cleaning up after Abbie and doing general housework and just taking care of her. And on that note, seriously, how *does* a 2BR apartment get so dirty so fast? And why is it that kids grow out of clothes so quickly? I can't keep up! lol

Abbie loves to eat in her highchair, and daddy installed a restraint strap so now she can't stand up anymore. Yay!



Speaking of food, how about helping mama cook?


And while she still prefers to play with her books (gotta love those board books!), she does play with her other toys once in awhile...



but she loves to be outside!


and she won't keep her socks on...


And Eli's hand-me-down horsey is her favorite!



For Halloween, mom got Abbie some butterfly wings so we bundled her up and put the wings on her coat.


And the rest of these are all Abbie's "first birthday" pictures...









I had so much fun taking these!











And this is it. My favorite picture of Abbie, to date. I love it, even though I pushed my camera to the limits and it's grainy because of the low light conditions, but I still love it!


And that's all I've got for now. Thanksgiving is over with and the tree is up and decorated, stockings hung and I'm getting ready to do Christmas cards. It'll be interesting to see how Abbie does with the tree. So far, she only takes one ornament off and isn't overly interested in it unless I am near the tree, so we'll see.... lol

Happy Fourth of July! Oh, am I late?

Oops. Time sure flies by and it doesn't seem to get slower, ever. Every year it just goes faster and faster. When I was a kid, it took forever for my birthday to come and even though Christmas was only two and a half months later, that also took forever to arrive. But now, I can't believe our little girl is 9 months old. Really? When did that happen? Where has the time gone to? I don't know, but we're enjoying all of the smiles a 9 month old gives....


We were in Eden for the fourth and had a blast. Lots of good food and visiting.











Eli plays hide and seek in the cupboard. He can actually fit in it and close the door and everything!



Abbie has two dolls to play with and is trying to figure them out...



Abbie teaching daddy some dance moves...


And playing outside while daddy grills supper...


Oh, so serious...


But now we're happy...


Mealtime has been fun and we've experimented with lots of things. Peas. She can get them to her mouth, although they mostly end up on the floor.

Success!!


And corn on the cob was a huge success....

Ok, so maybe we just handed her one that we had already eaten. Makes for a great photo, though! :)

And a sign that our little girl really is growing up. Teeth marks on the top rail of the crib. Yes, she has learned to pull herself up to a standing position and chew on the crib. I tell her no, she stops and then she looks at me and smiles. She smiles that cute little grin, like she knows I'm not really serious because she knows that I know that she is too cute for me to really mean no. But I do. And we deterred her a little bit when Derrick moved the mattress down one level. It's tougher for her to get to a standing position but she still does it. I was just so worried that she'd pull herself up and fall out of the crib. Now she can't fall out but she is learning to pull herself up even though it's lower.






She also likes to play peek-a-boo now and I love her little giggle when she really gets going!